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Alistair Overeem Withdraws From Strikeforce Title Fight

By Ariel Helwani - Video Reporter and Writer

Alistair Overeem has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled August 15 Strikeforce heavyweight title fight against Fabricio Werdum. Strikeforce director of communications Mike Afromowitz confirmed the news with FanHouse on Tuesday. Afromowitz said that the reason for the withdrawal was that the hand infection Overeem suffered following his May altercation in an Amsterdam nightclub has not fully healed.

Afromowitz added that Fabricio Werdum is still scheduled to compete on the card, but no opponent has officially been signed.

One would think that Brett Rogers' name would be on the short list of replacements, but Rogers' manager, Mike Reilly, told FanHouse that the organization has not contacted him about replacing Overeem. He also added that, "We wouldn't be interested in taking another short notice fight. We want to fight in October."

The organization has yet to decide whether they will introduce an interim title while Overeem recovers.

MMA Weekly first the reported the news that Overeem was still having issues with his injured hand.

Overeem is currently riding a four-fight winning streak, with one no contest against Mirko Cro Cop at DREAM.6. He defeated Paul Buentello in November 2007 to win the Strikeforce belt, but has yet to defend it once. He was also supposed to fight on Strikeforce's June 6 card but the same hand injury sustained just weeks before the event kept him out of action.

Strikeforce's next event, headlined by Gina Carano vs. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos for the new Strikeforce 145-pound women's title, will take place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Also scheduled is a lightweight title fight between champion Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez and a welterweight title fight between Nick Diaz and Joe Riggs. The event airs live on Showtime.